Scottish sporting anthology

This is a personal selection of published articles and books on Scottish sport history. There is a wealth of interesting material online, from digitised books to scholarly research, which I will continue to add to, and I would welcome any suggestions for inclusion here.

To read any book, just click on the cover image to open a pdf file.

Scottish Football Annual 1875

The first ever Scottish FA annual, containing a wealth of detail on the early clubs and pioneers of football.

Tales from Tynecastle 1928

This brief history of Hearts was published by Simmath Press, who later specialised in Scottish club histories and handbooks.

1901 history of Ayr FC

In 1901, Ayr Football and Athletic Club held a fund-raising bazaar, and the souvenir guide book contained a short history of the club which later merged with Ayr Parkhouse to form Ayr United FC.

Spanish football's Scottish roots

The fascinating story of the formation of Sevilla Football Club in Spain by emigré Scots was discovered by the club's historians. Read the full story here on the British Newspaper Archive blog, and a longer article on lafutbolteca.com, telling how Scotland was the cradle of Spanish football.

When Scotland competed at the Olympics

In 1908, a Scotland team took part in the Olympic Games for the only time. Richard Bath tells the story in Scotland on Sunday.

Rugby's tragic heroes

These articles by me, first published in The Scotsman, describe the life and early deaths of three Scottish rugby pioneers: JLH McFarlane (above), WD Brown and RW Irvine, who all played in the first international of 1871.

Some Football Reminiscences by Frank Walker, c1928

A rare booklet on 1920s football by Scotland international Frank Walker.

A thousand miles in a thousand hours

One of the earliest Scottish sports books was Pedestrianism (1813), which described the amazing exploits of Captain Barclay.

Walter Arnott looks back

One of Scotland's first football greats, Walter Arnott (1861-1931) published this little booklet of memories in 1928.

Rise and fall of Alfred Downer

It is one hundred years since the tragic death of Alfred Downer, Scottish sprint champion, in an Edinburgh asylum.Read about him in my article in the Scotsman, and he was also profiled in the Daily Record.